The 6 academics organised by PAS to discredit Dr Sam Hardy’s paper have said: “unreported finds are not damage, but at worst a zero-gain“! Really?! If something should be reported but isn’t, is that no loss to science?

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Those grabby artefact hunters who cannot be bothered to let the rest of us know what they’ve taken and who feel exonerated that the Scheme’s Head co-authored the text referred to above probably take comfort too by the assertion of another ‘partnership-promoting’ archaeologist Prof Raimund Karl (School of History, Philosophy and Social Sciences at Bangor University – apparently, quoting inside information from a FLO).

That, from what I know of the operation of the PAS (and I have been looking at it very carefully for most of the period of its existence), rather looks like shabby detectorist-friendly misinformation rather than any actual additional proof that the PAS now says it doesn’t matter if you don’t report your metal detecting finds – because they’ll reject them anyway.

So far, the PAS has refused to respond to this. I do think they owe the public (who pay their salaries) a better picture of the whole series of issues surrounding the interactions between on the one hand archaeology, sustainable resource use and on the other artefact hunting and collecting than the current knee-jerk academic smear campaign of misinformation and misdirection aimed at those who, like Hardy, raise important issues that the PAS and its supporters want ignored.

as a long term metal detectorist (1988) i too think finds should be reported but today in liverpool there is no flo you are required to self id finds yourself to the pas..when i first started the first flo’s didnt accept musket balls, spindle whorls ,pottery .nor iron goods it took years to get someone interested in these objects…